ith the heat wave that brought the highest temperature of the year to the city of São Paulo this week, neighborhoods in the capital of São Paulo and cities across the metropolitan region are deprived of a regular water supply. There are residents who have been facing serious problems for more than ten days.
Sabesp (Basic Sanitation Company of São Paulo) attributes the supply problems to the increase in water consumption of the population, caused precisely by the above-average temperatures of the last week. The company reports that there has been a 60% increase in consumption this week, even with an estimate that 30% of the population is away from home during the holiday season.
The supply problem is more serious on the outskirts of the capital – especially in the higher regions, where water only arrives by hydraulic pumps – and in the towns of the metropolitan region.
Part of the problems are due to reservoir levels, the lowest in the last ten years. The dams which supply the metropolitan region operated this Friday (26) at 26% of their capacity. A year ago, they held 48% of the total volume.
In the highest areas of Butantã, west of the capital, residents report that since Tuesday (23), the flow of running water was interrupted early in the morning and only returns in the early morning. The population is deprived of bathing, cannot wash their clothes and relies on water tanks to carry out basic tasks. The lack of supply even leads to financial losses for some.
Hairdresser Elaine Cristina dos Santos, 47, was only able to work three days a week during Christmas week, which is usually one of the busiest of the year, in her small salon in Jardim São Jorge, in the west zone. She estimates she lost more than 20 customers during this period.
“I spent Christmas washing clients’ hair with (water in) a plastic bottle. I missed a few appointments. It was embarrassing,” she says. The lack of supplies also ruined the family’s Christmas dinner, as no one was able to take a shower.
According to her, supply problems intensified just over ten days ago. Water has been coming through the pipes in her house since around 5 a.m., but it is dirty and at low pressure. The supply usually lasts five to six hours, so by midday there is no more water.
She doesn’t have a water tank, so she had to go to her mother’s house to wash clothes during this time.
“I have four children at home. I have a special daughter and an adopted child with dermatitis, who has to be bathed directly because it makes his skin very itchy,” says Elaine. “I don’t know what to do.”
About 1.5 km away, Valeria dos Reis, a 62-year-old retiree, has a pile of dirty clothes to wash that she can’t manage. Since last Tuesday, his house in Jardim Paulo VI has not received running water for most of the day. She also heard from neighbors who live in even higher areas of the neighborhood that the intermittent supply has been going on for almost two weeks.
Her situation is only improved because she has a water tank and usually reuses it for certain tasks, but the faucet in her laundry room is broken because it has a direct connection to the plumbing that comes in from the street. Clothes pile up and the space becomes dirty because of the dog.
When the water returns, between night and dawn, the problem is the opposite of what happens in the neighboring district: it arrives with high pressure and a lot of air in the pipes. “It’s more air than water,” she said.
Some neighboring and lower districts of Butantã do not experience supply problems. “Yesterday (Thursday) I spent the whole day without water, but only here. I passed by the street below and I saw people showering with a garden hose,” says Valeria.
Sabesp says increased consumption in lower areas of the metropolitan region helps explain why water has not reached higher areas. Additionally, the power cuts that hit the capital during the first half of December have also impacted water distribution, as the hydraulic pumps that carry water to the upper districts are powered by electricity.
“In the last month we have experienced some setbacks,” says Samanta Souza, director of institutional relations and sustainable development at Sabesp, citing power outages and increased consumption last week.
The company advised people to save water, avoiding washing cars and sidewalks, filling swimming pools or using water for non-essential purposes. Priority should be given to basic activities such as diet and personal hygiene. “Consumption needs to stabilize at the base of cities so that the summit, the mountaintop, can also receive water at the appropriate pressure.”
In August, as determined by Arsesp (Public Services Regulatory Agency of the State of São Paulo) and SP Águas, the company began reducing the water pressure in the pipes throughout the metropolitan region of São Paulo for eight hours at night, in an attempt to reduce the volume taken from the region’s reservoirs.
According to Samanta, the company has suspended the reduction of night pressure in the peripheral regions of Greater São Paulo so that the higher neighborhoods are not more affected by the lack of water.
An increase in precipitation is expected from next week, but the trend for the season is for a summer drier than the historical average, according to forecasts from Inmet (National Institute of Meteorology).
As Folha de S.Paulo showed in October, Sabesp broke a record water withdrawal from the metropolitan system in 2025, surpassing the average of the last eight years and even surpassing the volume withdrawn in the years preceding the São Paulo water crisis of 2014, according to technicians from the IAS (Instituto Água e Saneamento).
The company said at the time that the increase in withdrawals was due to growth in the population served and operational adjustments.
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